


My Heart Grows Brave

by Hopeless_Hogwartian394



Series: This World of Ours [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Australia is a thing, Australian Slang, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Funny, Gen, Harry Has a Twin, Hopefully not a Cliche, Just Roll With It, Let's see how this goes, Not Really Dead, Swearing, handwavey magic, this is gonna be loooong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-05-22 09:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6074152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeless_Hogwartian394/pseuds/Hopeless_Hogwartian394
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cass is weird, loud and slightly unstable, and she's off to Hogwarts. Best friends, crazy secrets and wacky adventures await. </p><p>A fresh perspective on what might have been, had things been different. Harry has a sister almost no-one knows about, who comes with a slightly dysfunctional family and a decidedly unusual upbringing. It's gonna be totally awesome (probably).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - In which there is January 2007

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously I don't own the rights to anything. Rated T for Cass's language (seriously). Hope you enjoy

_The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well._

 

With an approving nod, Luna hit save on Jo’s tentatively final draft of her story of Harry Potter. Hitting send, she patted the lid of her laptop and swung her chair round. Smiling serenely, she got up, collected her cup from the desk and swept downstairs.

 

Her husband glanced up from frowning at the paper as she entered the bright kitchen.

“Morning luv. Cass called, she said to ask if you wanted to meet her for coffee at the Leaky tomorrow. I’ll be alright on my own to look after the kids if you want to go.”

 

“I think that would be lovely. I’ll look for some things to drive the Wrackspurts away, they’re really getting out of hand.”

 

The next morning, Luna was almost ready, having spent the last twenty minutes hunting for her shoes and a purse. She finally managed to locate her left shoe behind a stack of old Quibbler editions dating back three years and an acceptable bag behind the couch. With a blithe “I’d best be off then”, she wandered out beyond the property line and spun on her heel.

 

A short time later, Luna was sitting at a vacant table in the newly renovated Leaky Cauldron with a glass of butterbeer sitting in front of her when the door swung open and admitted a tall woman bundled up in muggle winter clothing amidst a flurry of snow. She stumbled a little before catching herself and moving over to the bar, where she chatted with the woman at the bar and then headed towards Luna’s table, plonking herself down on the chair while unwinding her scarf and slipping out of her coat. 

 

“Hello Cass.”

 

“Hey Luna, Han’s really done a number on the pub, hasn’t she? It looks fucking fantastic. How’re y’goin?”, Cass answered, running her hands through her hair, dislodging her beanie in the process.

 

“Oh, you know, bit of everything, packing for that trip to Norway, and the Wrackspurts are at it again, they’re really getting out of hand. I’m going to see if that new shop in Diagon Alley has anything to send them away.”

 

“Mmm, maybe. And the kids, how are they?”

 

“Oh, they’re just great, the Nargles have really taken a shine to them. Jay’s been looking after them while I’ve been writing. He’s been such an angel, the Flitterdabs have given him such patience.”

 

Cass laughed. “Luna?” 

 

“Mmm?”

 

“Don’t ever change.” The waitress came along at that point and set a mug of coffee in front of C.C., which she immediately wrapped her hands tightly around, absorbing the warmth of the coffee within. “Ahh. That’s better. Nearly twenty fuckin’ years over here, still can’t get used to the bloody cold.”

 

“Maybe you have a bad case of the Nigglepods. They sit on your skin and suck all the warmth from your skin.”

 

“Like little tiny ghosts? Maybe. I wouldn’t know…”

 

Luna waited patiently as Cass nattered on for her to get to the reason she’d wanted to meet up. After half an hour of rambling conversation and friendly gossip, Cass began to wind down.

 

“…Ruby’s simply delighted with the prezzies she scored off Ben’s mum and Mi thinks that her latest project is gonna go off like a frog in a sock, you know the one with the… yeah. So anyway, how’s the book going? Jo finished it yet?”

 

“Just finished helping her edit the final draft this morning. You’ll like the epilogue.”

 

“ _Fantastique_! Can’t wait to read it. So anyway, you ‘member how Jo never wrote some of us into the books, yeah? Because _somebody_  forgot to mention us, and then it got too hard and too much effort to make it come out the same as real life and then too painful? I think I’m ready to do something about it.”

 

“Really? It _would_ make such a fascinating tale.”

 

“Course it would. I’m in it. So, I’ll come round later and we’ll work something’ out, yeah?” Draining the last of her drink, Cass stood up and started pulling her coat on. “Next Monday work for you?”

 

“That would be lovely.”

 

“Great, see ya later then, Luna.”

 

* * *

Luna sat down at her desk, the sheaf of notes written she’d taken close to hand. Pulling up a new blank document on her screen, she ordered her thoughts, and began to type.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it. Please let me know what you thought of it, it would make my day. Bonus points to those who can tell me where i got the title from, and any references I make. I'm probably gonna need a beta/brit-picker, so if you're interested let me know, that'd be awesome.
> 
> Also, for the non-Aussies out there:  
> Prezzie - Present  
> Going off like a frog in a sock - go crazy/bananas/awesomely


	2. Chapter 1 - In which we are introduced

January 1991

 

Cass gazed out the window, watching as the bright lights of Sydney, surrounded by the dark emptiness of water, and the smattering of lights that marked the suburbs surrounding the city,disappeared as the plane ascended into the clouds, her home for the past 9 years vanishing away beneath her.Mum and Dad had decided that they were going to move back to England, and she already felt homesick. Mum, as if sensing her thoughts, reached over the back of the seat and tweaked her left plait before resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

 

Later, after the flight attendants had brought round a something that sort of resembled food, Cass drifted off into a fitful sleep. She dreamt of a dark, cramped space, with spiders hanging on the ceiling and what appeared to be someone’s stuff tucked away in the corners. She was seated on a thin, lumpy mattress, and as she gazed around, she saw that there were very few personal items, just well worn clothes which looked as if they once belonged to a young boy, and a few tattered books which looked as if they had been read a million times. She jerked awake, disoriented and uncomfortable, to find Jaz poking her shoulder

 

_Cass, awake_

_Fuck off, Jaz_

_Not nice, sister_

  
_“_ Jaaaaz”

 

_Fine. You now go back sleeping._

_Yeah right_

Unable to go back to sleep (thanks for that Jaz), Cass fished her book out of the bag at her feet and curled awkwardly up in her seat, one foot on Jaz’s lap

 

"Caaaass”

_Deal. No sleep your fault._

 

Cass managed to get through the rest of the flight without much further protest from her sister, mostly because it was easy to ignore someone who signs most of what they want to say when you’re reading a book. The occasional poke was the worst she got.

 

The rumbling of the plane and the voice over the intercom told her that the plane was coming in to land at the airport. With a juddering thump and a bump, the wheels of the plane hit the tarmac, and Cass stood up and moved past Jaz, to grab their carry-ons, ready to begin a new life on English soil.

 

However, the second she stepped off the plane, she almost turned right back around to go straight back home. London was so grey and unwelcoming, and absolutely freezing. The sky was cloudy, and all she could see were buildings. Admittedly, this was still the airport, but she didn't have high hopes for the rest of her time here. Travelling through the streets against a backdrop of houses imprisioned by snow, she felt trapped, closed in. The lack of trees and quiet streets constantly reminded her that she wasn’t home anymore. When they arrived at their new house, in the outskirts of London, Cass felt exhausted and home-sick.  Even though she had been born here, Cass felt no connection to this place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaz is very HoH, so she signs most of the time, using a mixture of Auslan, the phonetic signs and signs that someone in the family made up. The structure etc is different to English mostly, which explains the weird translations in Italics


	3. Chapter 2 - in which letters are received and not much else

Cass was staring out the window of her year 6 classroom, her left leg jiggling as the teacher droned on about long division. Over the past few months, while the rest of her class was learning stuff she knew already, she’d managed to work her way through a bunch of  Year 7 textbooks she’d managed to get ahold of, after she’d been at school for a week and had been so bored that she had somehow managed to almost set the school on fire.

 

Her attention was brought back to the classroom by a firm nudge in the ribs from the girl next to her. Ellie was her closest friend at school, a little ahead of the rest of their class, like herself, and also a mostly alone and obviously foreign. They had a tentative friendship, with Ellie always trying to get her to concentrate on the teacher in case “they missed something important“, and Cass working on getting her to relax and to tone down her attitude a little. She wasn’t having much success, but she was hopeful that once they hit high school, it would get better.

 

The teacher was still droning on, and the clouds visible out the window were becoming increasingly more interesting, so she turned her attention to the view outside.

* * *

Cycling home from school that day, she turned her thoughts towards the impending holidays. Mum had been muttering something about going to visit Tatie Marie’s parents for a few weeks, which sounded exciting. She’d never met them, but she’d  heard a lot about them from Scout. Hopefully it would be warmer than it was in England, although she didn’t have particularly high hopes. Her childhood had clearly ruined her for living anywhere else.

 

Swinging into the driveway of their new home, she aimed her bike at the space between the house and the fence, where she parked it, hopped off, locked it up, and trotted over to the front door, fishing her keys out of her bright blue backpack.  

 

She bounded down the hallway, dumping her bag outside her room as she raced to the kitchen, swiping an apple from the bowl on the table and swinging round into the living room. No-one was home, so the decision to ignore any homework she’d been given was an easy one. Grabbing her book from her bag, she settled onto the couch.

 

It was at least forty minutes before anyone got home. Cass managed to become completely absorbed in her book until the sound of someone unlocking the door distracted her. The pattering of feet heralded the arrival of a giggling Meggie and then Dad, overloaded with shopping bags, his black hair even more dishevelled than usual.

 

“Hey Dad, need a hand there?”

 

“Yeah, if you could just take some of these that’d be great.”

 

“Sure.” As she relived Dad of some of his burden (six people made for a lot of food, even if one of them was not even 2), she felt a hand tugging on her skirt.

 

“Caca Caca."

 

"Hey Meggie, could ya just head over there for a sec.” Meggie ignored her, continuing to tug at her skirt. “Just gimme a sec, short stuff”. With no small amount of nudging, she finally got her littlest sister to let go, by which point Dad had retrieved the last of the shopping from the car. After they had finished packing away the groceries, Meggie had pulled out some of her toys and was burbling away at them on the floor. Cass settled beside her and picked up Wombie.

 

“Cass, how was your day?”

 

“Good.” 

 

“Cass, more information needed.”

 

"Fine. It was bloody boring.”

 

“Cass!”

 

Sorry. It’s true though. How was your day then?”

 

“Lovely. A letter came today for you today Cass, it’s in your room.”

 

“Why were you in my room?”

 

A raised eyebrow was the only answer she got.

 

Cass entered her room and picked up the square envelope sitting on her desk. She noticesd the bright green address on the front, and grinned at the latest letter from Scout. She leapt onto her bed and wriggled a little to get comfortable, before ripping open the letter and unfolding it.

 

_Dearest Caylandriah,_

     **God fucking dammit Scout**  


 

_How are you? How’s school going? Excited for the holidays? I can’t wait!_

_Robert says to tell you that he loves the book Mark lent him (boys are weird. I really hope he does’t get any ideas)._

A snicker escaped Cass at that point. The book had been her idea.

 

She read through several pages of Scout’s usual ramblings of school, friends and home (read, annoying little brothers) until she reached the end.

 

_Looking forward to seeing you when we are all in France for the hole. I’ve got some awesome news that I’d love to tell you, and I’m going to as soon as we can get rid of the adults, even though I’m not supposed to. It explains a lot_

 

_Love from your absolute favourite cousin in the entire Universe,_

_Scout_

 

Cass sat back and blinked. That was weird, even for Scout. 

 

“Cass! Come and help with dinner please!”

 

Cass sighed and pushed it out of her mind. “Coming!”

 

* * *

_27 July 1991 (Saturday)_

 

It was early(ish) in the morning, and the sun was well on its way to reaching its zenith. The angle of the rays caused light to shine through a particular window in a particular house onto a particular pile of sheets. As the sun continued to shine onto the blankets, they began to shift and groan and eventually get pushed off a dark head, which blinked at the sun and eventually managed to wake up enough to get out of bed.

 

“Stupid Jaz opening the fucking curtains on a fucking Saturday cos she’s such a bloody morning person and bloody alarms are useless to her. Every single bloody time. Jerk. _Merde,_  it’s too bloody early to be awake,” was the mumbled litany that accompanied a still half asleep Cass to the bathroom.

 

It was twenty minutes later when she emerged,[ clean](http://s.igmhb.com/click?v=QVU6MTEyNTU5OjY0NTA6Y2xlYW46NzJkOGFiZmUyMmVhYTEzZGJhYTc2YTI0MWVjZTJmMDI6ei0yNDkyLTI4MzQ2MzEwOmFyY2hpdmVvZm91cm93bi5vcmc6MzI0MTQ4OjI4MDdiNGRlMGIzZjI0YzZmOTBmNjdlYWQ4OGNhMDk4OjdjN2VmMzNiOGFlOTQxN2Y4ZDg4YWRhMThmOTRiYzE0OjE6ZGF0YV9zcyw3NDJ4MTM2NjtkYXRhX3JjLDU7ZGF0YV9mYixubzs6NDM5MTIxNA&subid=g-28346310-c1b9d1c13baa4ac59f78bea0abe5e206-&data_ss=742x1366&data_rc=5&data_fb=no&data_tagname=A&data_ct=image_only&data_clickel=link) and slightly damp, and entered her bedroom to get dressed and wrestle her mass of unruly hair into two braids, and then follow her stomach to breakfast.

 

Entering the kitchen, where Dad was downing what looked to be his second cup of coffee with almost religious intensity, and Mum was drooping sleepily over a cup of tea and some toast, her red hair almost trailing through the Vegemite. Jaz was reading smugly on the couch, oblivious to the death glare aimed at her, and the thumps from the high chair forced Cass to swerve on her way to the cupboards. 

 

The clatter of crockery caused Dad to look up at her. “You’re up early, any reason why?”

 

“Guess,” Cass grumbled into the corn flakes.

 

“Okay ‘Ria. Letter for you.”

 

After sticking the milk back into the fridge, she carried her bowl over to the table and reached for the coffee pot, only to have it tugged out of her reach. “Not yet”

 

“Daaad.”

 

“You’re too young.”

 

“Fine. Juice it is then.”

 

After pouring herself a glass, she reached for the letter on the table. The envelope was made of a funny paper, and the handwriting of the address was wrong, not to mention the lack of a stamp. The looping script on the front read;

 

_Miss C. Evans_

_Second Bedroom on the Right_

_10 Crossley St_

_Islington_

_London_

 

Flipping it over, she found the other side was sealed with old-fashioned sealing wax with a funny looking crest stamped on it. Ripping it open, she pulled out the letter inside, which was written on the same thick paper as the envelope, and scanned the contents, eating her cereal one-handed.

 

“Um, Dad? This a joke?”

 

“Chuck it ‘ere.”

 

Passing it across the table, she turned back to her breakfast. by the time the was done, Dad still hadn’t spoken, although Mum had finished her toast and was now reading the letter, while Jaz carried a newly released and squirming Meggie out of the room.

 

“Well? Waddaya think?”

 

“It looks legit. Familiar too.”

 

“Really? Wow.” More awake by now, Cass leaned forward, fascinated. This happened so rarely, and she was curious. But neither parent said anything more.

 

Cass hopped up, dumped her bowl in the sink and drained the last of her juice, before retrieving her letter from Mum’s loose grasp and heading off to her room to write a reply, passing a nearly comatose Mark on the way.

 

Pulling out a sheet of lined paper, she grabbed a pen from the pen jar on her desk, a gift from Scout on her last birthday, and began to write.

 

_Ms McGonagall,_

  
_This morning I received a letter inviting me to attend your school, however, I am doubtful of its legitimacy. If you could prove it, I would be most grateful. My address, in case you are unaware, is_ _10 Crossley St,_ _Islington,_ _London._  


_My thanks_

_Cass Evans_

 

Folding up the letter, she. sealed it in an envelope, addressed it to _Ms Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,_ stuck a few stamps on the front, and wandered out into the hall to see if Mum needed her to get anything from the shops while she was out posting her letter.

 

Twenty minutes later, Cass was cycling towards the nearest set of shops that had a post box, with a shopping list for milk, butter, sugar, bread, apples and lemons in her back pocket (Mum wanted to try making her birthday cake this afternoon), and the letter tucked securely in her bike basket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter which I'm defs not using as procrastinating instead of writing my PHIL essay.
> 
> Cass is really young for her year and I haven't the foggiest how the British schooling system works or the state of the London housing market in 1991, although if it's anything like Sydney, they probs can afford it.
> 
> Wombie is a stuffed Wombat which Cass is particularly fond of. 'Caca' is what Meggie calls Cass.
> 
> I think most of what they say is understandable, although Cass swears a lot, and is most emphatically not a morning person.
> 
> Neither parent can really cook, so Cass taught herself early on how to make sure what they made came out edible. Otherwise it's mostly takeaway
> 
> Vegemite is "a dark brown Australian spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives" (Wikipedia) which is salty and delicious and something non-Australians hate and routinely get wrong. (use butter and moderation, peoples)
> 
> If anyone want's to Brit-pick/beta, lemme know.


	4. Just A Heads Up

I've grown very dissatisfied with this. I started writing it a few years back, and while it has undergone some revisions, I am not really as happy with it as I was. 

I've grown up a fair bit in the intervening time, and I've grown as a writer. The character of Cass and who she is is fundamentally the same, but she's also gained dimensions and how I want this story to be has changed. I need and want to rewrite this. This fic is going to get taken down and get rewritten. Im gonna start over. Its necessary. Sorry. Thanks.


End file.
